On Idolatry 21
Summary: Keeping silent when someone swears or curses by the gods, or cursing back in their name, honors the idols; a Christian should answer with a blessing in God's name.
Latin text · CSEL 20:54–55
Timiditatis est autem, cum te alius per deos suos obligat iuratione uel aliqua testificatione et tu, ne intellegaris, quiescis. nam aeque quiescendo confirmas maiestatem eorum, cuius causa uideberis obligatus. quid refert, deos nationum dicendo deos an audiendo confirmes? iures per idola, an ab alio adiuratus acquiescas? cur non agnoscamus uersutias satanae, qui, quod ore nostro perficere non potest, id agit, ut suorum ore perficiat per aures inferens nobis idololatriam? certe quisquis ille est, aut amica aut inimica congressione adstringit. si inimica, iam ad pugnam uocaris et scis tibi dimicandum esse: si amica, quanto securius in dominum transferes sponsionem tuam, ut dissoluas obligationem eius, per quem te malus honori idolorum id est idololatriae quaerebat annectere. omnis patientia eiusmodi idololatria. honoras eos, quibus impositis obsequium praestitisti. scio quendam, cui dominus ignoscat, cum illi in publico per litem dictum esset: Iupiter tibi sit iratus, respondisse: immo tibi. quid aliter fecisset ethnicus, qui Iouem deum credidit? etiamsi non per eundem retorsisset maledictum nec per ullum Iouis similem, confirmauerat Iouem deum, per quem se maledictum indigne tulisse demonstrauerat remaledicens. ad quid enim indigneris per eum, quem scis nihil esse? nam si insanis, iam esse confirmas, et erit idololatria professio timoris tui: quanto magis, cum per ipsum remaledicis, eodem Iouis honorem facis, quo et ille, qui te prouocauit? fidelis autem in eiusmodi ridere debet, non insanire, immo, secundum praeceptum, ne per deum quidem remaledicere, sed plane benedicere per deum, ut et idola destruas et deum praedices et adimpleas disciplinam.
English · Claude translation
It is a matter of timidity, however, when another binds you by his gods with an oath or some other attestation, and you keep quiet so as not to be recognized. For by keeping quiet you equally confirm their majesty, on whose account you will seem to have been bound. What difference does it make whether you confirm the gods of the nations by calling them gods or by hearing them so called? Whether you swear by idols, or acquiesce when adjured by another? Why do we not recognize the cunning of Satan, who, what he cannot accomplish through our own mouth, contrives to accomplish through the mouth of his servants, bringing idolatry into us through our ears? Certainly, whoever the person is, he binds you in either a friendly or a hostile encounter. If hostile, you are already called to battle and know that you must fight; if friendly, how much more safely will you transfer your pledge to the Lord, so as to dissolve the obligation laid on you by the one through whom the evil one was trying to bind you to the honor of idols, that is, to idolatry. All passive acceptance of this kind is idolatry. You honor those whose invocation you have obeyed. I know of a man, may the Lord forgive him, who, when someone said to him in public during a quarrel, “May Jupiter be angry with you,” answered, “No, with you.” What else would a heathen have done, who believed Jupiter a god? Even if he had not thrown back the curse by the same god, or by any like Jupiter, he had confirmed Jupiter as a god, by showing, in cursing back, that he took it ill to be cursed by him. For why be indignant at being cursed by one whom you know to be nothing? For if you rage, you confirm that he exists, and your fear will be a profession of idolatry; how much more, when you curse back by him, do you do honor to Jupiter just as the one who provoked you did? But a believer ought to laugh at such things, not rage; nay, according to the precept, he ought not even to curse back by God, but plainly to bless by God, so that he may destroy idols, proclaim God, and fulfill discipline.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The precept is to bless those who curse (Rom 12:14; Matt 5:44; 1 Pet 3:9).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled word in the digital text; the sense requires perficiat): per- Sciat → perficiat.
Cite this passage
Tertullian, Idol. 21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-idololatria/21/).
Plain text
Tertullian, Idol. 21 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/tertullian-idololatria/21/).
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